As if Joohoon hadn’t meant it that way, his eyes rolled around uncertainly. Looking at him, Yoohee asked in a flat tone.
“What were you really like?”
“….”
“You didn’t spend your entire time just exercising all day. Even small, trivial things are fine. Just tell me about yourself.”
Although Yoohee carefully urged him, Joohoon’s tightly closed lips did not easily open.
Did he think there was no need to say it anymore now?
Even so, she decided to wait patiently for Joohoon’s answer.
How long had she waited?
Eventually, Joohoon’s lips slowly parted.
“I missed you.”
After saying those words quietly, Joohoon’s face twisted as if he felt terribly guilty about himself.
“I’m sorry, Yoohee.”
The lips Joohoon had been biting lightly quickly turned red.
[Some constellations clutch their chests.]
Did even saying that he missed her feel like something he had to apologize for?
Was he afraid that hearing this would make her sad?
Suppressing the emotions welling up inside her, Yoohee spoke firmly.
“What I said before. I wasn’t joking. I wasn’t just saying it without meaning anything.”
Joohoon looked at Yoohee with a slightly surprised expression. His grayish-brown eyes trembled as if asking what she meant.
That she would succeed in guidance?
“Yeah, so please hold on until then. Okay?”
Joohoon had to endure.
Only then would the entire scenario be able to proceed.
Normally, the amount of time an Esper could endure without receiving guidance was around three months. However, that was only an average. Depending on the Esper’s condition, signs of a rampage could appear earlier or later.
Yoohee would need at least three months to raise her guidance ability to a certain level.
Before then, Joohoon could not lose his reason and go into a rampage on his own.
“Answer me.”
At Yoohee’s sincere plea, Joohoon’s eyes, which had been wavering for a moment, gradually regained their stability. And although faint, they held the pure smile that Yoohee knew so well.
“Okay.”
Almost at the same time as Joohoon’s answer, the guards outside entered the visitation room again.
“Visiting hours are over.”
As Yoohee obediently left the visitation room, a message announcing the scenario’s progress appeared in her field of vision.
[Scenario Notification: Tutorial for Newbies 2/3]
Only one day remained until the first main scenario would end.
***
After all her classes were over, Yoohee headed straight to the library.
Since she didn’t have much time, she planned to stop by a convenience store on the way and roughly take care of dinner. Carrying a backpack filled with all sorts of miscellaneous items, she hurried along when a familiar voice called out to her.
“Yoohee!”
When she turned her head, she saw Jin-hee running toward her with a bright smile after coming out of the neighboring building.
“Perfect timing! Let’s go eat dinner together.”
Sparkling.
Her clear eyes, free of any impurities, stared at Yoohee.
What should she do?
“Sorry, I’m going to the library.”
“Huh? To study? What about dinner?”
“I’m just going to grab something simple.”
Jinhee looked at her with a puzzled expression.
Well, she was still a freshman who should be busy having fun, so Jinhee probably thought Yoohee was being overly serious.
“Jinhee, come here for a moment.”
Yoohee led Jinhee behind the building, where there were no people around.
Looking at the piles of flower petals scattered on one side, Yoohee opened her mouth.
“Actually, about the freshman who entered Building F yesterday.”
“Hm?”
“I know that person.”
Jinhee’s eyes instantly widened. Yoohee began explaining her relationship with Joohoon to Jinhee.
She had no intention of continuing to hide it from Jinhee anyway.
She left out the status window and the scenarios since Jinhee probably wouldn’t believe them even if she explained them. Instead, she honestly told her that she was going to study guidance in order to save Joohoon.
Then, the tears that had gathered in Jinhee’s widened eyes began to overflow. After that, Jinhee pushed Yoohee’s back with all her strength.
“Ugh, hurry and go… Don’t look back! I’m sor- sob, sorry for holding you back, my bla—”
Thanks to Jinhee, who empathized with her as if it were her own problem, Yoohee was able to head to the library quickly without needing any further explanation.
She stopped by the convenience store for a moment and quickly chewed down a sandwich. Her stomach was lightly filled, and now it was truly time to focus on studying guidance.
‘He’s not here today, right?’
Before entering the Information Resources Room, Yoohee shook her head left, right, up, and down, first checking whether Seo Hyunho was inside.
They say even when crossing a small stone bridge, you should knock on it first.
After experiencing that proverb painfully yesterday, she had no intention of letting her guard down today.
‘He’s not here. He’s really not here, right?’
After quickly scanning the room, Yoohee placed her bag down at a seat and took out the book she had not been able to finish reading yesterday.
One by one, thick books were placed on the desk. Even the horn-rimmed glasses that signaled the start of studying were equipped.
‘Good. Let’s begin.’
Unlike the Korea Yoohee had experienced in her previous life, there was no shortage of Awakened people in this era.
An era where about one-fourth of South Korea’s population were Awakened. It was even considered one of the world’s leading nations in terms of Awakened power.
Now that educating and developing Awakened people through systematic infrastructure had become an everyday occurrence, Yoohee felt strangely overwhelmed when she looked at the books where theories had been neatly organized.
‘Spiral Mana Theory… Back then, I struggled so much while hurriedly providing guidance to Uncle Do-hwan inside the B-rank Gate. I guess it could actually be explained this simply.’
Uncle Do-hwan had always been the warm and reliable person who led the way inside Gates.
That day, he had been injured because he failed to avoid the attack of a fast creature. The problem was that there was no guide inside the Gate who could provide guidance to him.
“Quickly! We’re all going to die if this continues!”
That desperate voice still echoed vividly in her mind.
Yoohee had also struggled desperately to provide guidance to Do-hwan, but unlike other Espers, his mana had a slightly different form.
It looked somewhat like a whirlpool, or perhaps like a spiral seashell, constantly curling around. Because of that, the wavelength could not penetrate the mana and only circled around the outside.
‘Back then, did I… eventually find the answer through instinct?’
Holding onto Uncle Do-hwan’s hand, Yoohee had repeated countless failures. Then, by chance, when she pushed the wavelength into the center point inside his mana, the guidance finally succeeded.
—Spiral Mana Theory: In the case of mana that spins and rotates like a whirlpool, guidance can only be established by pushing the wavelength into the center point of the circle.
When she saw the clearly organized sentence in the book once again, a hollow laugh escaped her.
[Your guidance ability has improved through studying.]
[Guidance Ability: 4 → 5]
A welcome piece of news arrived for Yoohee.
But that was not the end.
[Through the stimulation of experience, a previously hidden skill seal has been released. The unlocked skill will begin from Level 1.]
[Acquired Skill: Absolute Compatibility Lv.1]
A status window appeared afterward.
Absolute Compatibility.
It was a skill Yoohee herself had not even known about.
In her past life, Yoohee had not only saved Uncle Do-hwan but had also successfully provided guidance to other Espers during several dangerous situations by instinctively discovering the answer.
‘Could it be that my past experiences became skills?’
First, to check the skill description, she pressed the star-shaped icon and opened the status window.
Then, in the skill possession section that had previously been marked as “None,” a proper skill name and description appeared.
—Owned Skill: Absolute Compatibility Lv.1
*(Current Effect: Most matching rates above 47%. Mastery of some guidance methods. As this skill level increases, guidance becomes possible regardless of the type of mana.)
The moment she read the skill description, Yoohee’s eyes widened.
‘Regardless of the type of mana?’
Joohoon’s mana could not be explained even with the theories written in the books.
At first glance, it seemed like a simple trapezoid-shaped mana, but whenever she tried to push the wavelength in according to its shape, something strangely failed to align.
But if she used this skill…
If her guidance ability could support it to a certain extent, and if she could make good use of this skill, then perhaps she might be able to save Joohoon much more easily.
[Some constellations show interest in your skill.]
Even the constellations became interested in Yoohee’s skill.
Well, even the highest-ranked guides could not provide guidance to every Esper.
The wavelength that each guide was born with naturally had certain types of mana it matched with. Across both her past and present lives, people called this the matching rate.
Usually, matching rates between 40–60% were the most common, and even that level was enough to perform ordinary guidance.
A matching rate of 61–80% meant the two people had such excellent compatibility that they could become a pair or even form a mark.
Meanwhile, 1–39% meant that guidance was practically meaningless.
However, the matching rate was not an absolute value.
In cases like Uncle Do-hwan, where the mana’s form was unusual, the guidance method itself became complicated. Unless the matching rate was extremely high, attempting guidance was difficult.
In other words, what mattered just as much as the matching rate was the method of guidance.
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